Stylos is the blog of Jeff Riddle, a Reformed Baptist Pastor in North Garden, Virginia. The title "Stylos" is the Greek word for pillar. In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul urges his readers to consider "how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar (stylos) and ground of the truth."

Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in
the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for
all saints; 19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open
my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,

I made
mention of a quote from a section in John Owen’s The True Nature of a Gospel
Church and Its Government in which he describes the comfort and fellowship
which all churches and all Christian have through prayer.I thought I had previously posted this but
looks like I hadn’t.Here is the Owen’s
quotation taken from Gospel Church Government, my 2012 abridgement and
simplification of Owen’s original work (emphasis added):

The fellowship
of churches in faith consists much in the principal fruit of that faith,
namely, prayer.So, in Ephesians 2:18,
it says, “For through Christ we have access by one Spirit unto the
Father.”Paul continues the emphasis on
prayer in vv. 19-22.Prayers in all
churches have one object.They are
directed to God, even the Father, that is, God as Father.They proceed from one and the same
Spirit.A Spirit of grace and
supplication is given to them to make intercession for them.All is continually offered to God by the same
High Priest.He adds to it the incense
of his own intercession.By him they
have all access to the same throne of grace.They have a blessed fellowship in
prayer continually.This fellowship is
more evident in that the prayers of all are for all.There is not a single particular church or a
single member of any of them that does not have the prayer support of all the
churches in the world and all the members of them every day.Though this fellowship is invisible to the
eyes of flesh, it is glorious to the eye of faith.It is a part of the glory of Christ the
mediator in heaven.This fellowship in
prayer gives to all churches a communion far more glorious than any outward
rite or plan of men’s devising.If
there are any persons or churches who pray to anyone other than God the Father,
or who rely on any mediator other than Christ alone, or who renounce the aid of
the Holy Spirit, they cut themselves off from fellowship with the universal
church (pp. 100-101).

Did
the Judaizers who infiltrated the Galatian churches really believe that
circumcision would save you (cf. Acts 15:1)?Didn’t they believe in Jesus? Didn’t they just want to be zealous in
keeping God’s law as they understood it?Yes, there might have been something good about their zeal for obedience,
but on the whole it was wrong.They
mixed truth with error, and so made the whole of their belief structure
wrong.They thought they had it right,
but they were wrong. All false religions and all false cults believe with great
sincerity and most often with great fervor that they hold the truth.But this does not mean they are right.

Under
the influence of the Judaizers, the Galatians had adopted a false persuasion.It did not come from God.

Now,
as I noted last week, the problem in the modern church is no longer
circumcision.But we still do battle
with works righteousness.This may take
many forms.Our “circumcision” is
anything we think we must add to the cross work of Christ to really be saved.

Conservative
Christians are particularly prone to get into these types of traps.How do we shake ourselves loose from false
persuasions?

1.We should
practice discernment, making use of all the resources God has given to us.These resources include first
and foremost Scripture, along with meditation, prayer, and the church
(especially her elders and teachers, including the written works of godly men of
the past and confessions of faith).Consider the words of the apostle John:

1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe
not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many
false prophets are gone out into the world.

2.We should
take time.We should
not make hasty decisions.There are few
decisions in life that cannot be helped by taking adequate time to make
them.There is a logical fallacy called
“the fallacy of exigency” which says you’ve got to hurry up and make a decision
because time is running out.Politicians
and lawyers use this fallacy to bring about decisions before folk have time to
think through all the ramifications of their actions.Consider, however, the wisdom of Solomon:

Ecclesiastes 5:2 Be not rash
with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing
before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy
words be few.

3.We should
strive to be stable and consistent, rather than erratic and inconsistent.We should not be like a Christian butterfly
flittering and fluttering from one conviction or practice to another and never
settling anywhere for long. We are not to be double minded, as James said:

James 1:8 A double minded man is unstable in all
his ways.

As
Paul puts it in Romans 14:5 when addressing disputable practices: “Let every
man be persuaded in his own mind.”

Friends,
let us avoid the pitfalls of false persuasions that the Galatians fell
into.Most importantly, let us look to
Christ and to him alone for our salvation.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Note:We
returned to our Galatians series last Sunday, as I preached on Galatians 5:1-6.Galatians has been called the “Magna
Carta” of Christian liberty.Here are
some of my notes from the exposition of Galatians 5:1:

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage”
(Galatians 5:1).

Notice first that Paul is offering an exhortation to stand
fast.The Galatians have already proven
that they were capable of slippage (cf. Gal 1:6:“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from
him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel”).Now, he exhorts them to hold their
ground.He wants them to be spiritually
rooted and grounded.Grounded in
what?In liberty (eleutheria:freedom).We need to be careful here, because our
democratic, egalitarian culture can cause us to misunderstand Paul’s
sense.

Paul was not speaking here about
political liberty.

He was not talking about
psychological or emotional liberty.

He was not talking about libertinism
or spiritual anarchy—nobody can tell me what I ought to think or believe.

He was talking about the ultimate spiritual liberty
that comes through the gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ.This is what he means
when he speaks of this liberty “wherewith Christ has made us free.”What is the emphasis upon?It is upon the work of Christ.He is the Liberator.

The language here is that of the slave-market (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:21:“Art thou called being a servant? care
not for it: but if thou mayest be made free [eleutheros], use it rather.”).Christ has ransomed you who used to be slaves
to sin and who were also slaves to the burden of works righteousness.

So,
Paul exhorts the Galatians to stand fast in liberty, “and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage [douleia]”
(v. 1).Notice the continuation of the
slavery metaphor.You have been
liberated.Why would you go back to
bondage?

There
is a popular film based on the Solomon Northup book Twelve Years a Slave.It is
about a free black man who was illegally sold into slavery where he suffered
for 12 years till he escaped and won again his freedom.How would it be in the book or film if after
gaining back his freedom this man had given up his liberty and returned to his
suffering enslavement?That would be
nonsensical would it not?But this is
what Paul is saying that the Galatians had done by abandoning the gospel and
going back to the beggarly “Christ plus” religion.Paul is wanting to make them come to their
senses.To think clearly and
soberly.To stand fast in liberty.

Brown also shares an anecdote from an early biographer:“….Once when some intimate friends of his,
fellow bishops, were forgetful enough of his verses as to gossip, he upbraided
them so sternly that he lost his temper, and said that either they should rub
these verses off the table, or that he would get up and go to his room in the
middle of the meal” (p. 200).

Saturday, February 15, 2014

I've been reading Peter Brown's classic biography Augustine of Hippo (University of California Press, 1967) and was struck by his description of how Augustine's views on sanctification matured in the early years following his Christian conversion, including how his Platonism was tempered by his encounter with the Bible (especially Paul). Brown offers this quotation from Augustine:

"Whoever thinks that in this mortal life a man may so disperse the mists of bodily and carnal imaginings as to possess the unclouded light of changeless truth, and to cleave to it with the unswerving constancy of a spirit wholly estranged from the common ways of life--he understands neither What he seeks, nor who he is who seeks it" (de cons. evang. IV, x, 20; as cited in Brown, p. 147).

“And as they heard these things, he added and spake
a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the
kingdom of God should immediately appear” (Luke 19:11).

1.Jesus clarifies
for his disciples the timing and the nature of the kingdom that he is
bringing about.

Timing:Jesus was teaching that his kingdom would not
come immediately.Jesus still resists
those who try to set up timetables and predictions of his coming.As Jesus told his disciples, “It is not for
you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own
power” (Acts 1:7).

As
Peter said to the scoffers of his day, the Lord is not “slack concerning his
promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2
Peter 3:9).

Nature:And he was teaching that his kingdom was not
going to be built by seizing the crown from Caesar but by going to the
cross.He was teaching that the kingdom
would be built heart by heart, life by life till the time when Christ comes in
glory (cf. Luke 17:20).

2.Jesus
teaches us of the vital importance of being faithful and fruitful disciples in
this age.

We are
the douloi (servants) of this
parable.God has given equally to us the
gift of salvation (even as he gave to each servant in the parable ten
pounds).He has given equal duties of
being faithful and wise in the stewardship of our lives.

Some
will be able to be highly fruitful and others less but still significantly so.This parable is given to motivate us not to
be like the unprofitable third servant of the parable.We are not to presume ill of the character of
God and be so paralyzed with fear or intimidation that we never “traffic” with
the good deposit that has been given to us.

So, we
can ask the basic questions:

How am
I using my life for Christ?My
vocation?My family?My time?

I saw
a news item the other day which noted more people read Facebook than read the
Bible.What has captured more of my
interest?Christ or the world?

This
parable tells us that for believers there will be a time of reckoning.Now, this is a parable, and so it should not
be interpreted rigidly.I think we are
being motivated by warning.The third
servant does not have his salvation taken away, but he is called a “wicked
servant” (v. 22).He is not given the
reward of greater responsibility.

There
is an ongoing debate about “rewards” in heaven.I am not sure what this parable contributes to that discussion. In this
parable, men who were faithful with relatively small investments (the pound)
and who give astounding returns (though still relatively modest in amount) are
given responsibilities out of all proportion to their faithfulness.They are given to rule over 10 or 5 cities!Compare this with teaching elsewhere in the
NT:

Luke 22:29 And I appoint unto
you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; 30 That ye may eat and
drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes
of Israel.

1 Corinthians 6:2 Do ye not
know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by
you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3 Know ye not that we shall
judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

Will
there be spiritual responsibilities given in the kingdom to believers based on
their faithfulness and fruitfulness in stewardship here on earth?

And
what of the opposite?Will there be
shame for saints who were not faithful and fruitful?Jude speaks of those who are saved “with
fear, pulling them out of the fire” (v. 23).

I do
not know the answer to the question of “rewards.”Personally, I do not know how there could
possibly be degrees of joy in heaven or what more could be added to being with
Christ.I also do not think it is wise
to wander into vain speculation on this topic.

What
we are to get from this parable is simply the motivation to be a faithful
servant who will hear the praise of his master and not a wicked servant who
will hear the disappointment of his master when the kingdom comes.

3.Jesus warns
about
the consequences that will result for those who reject his Lordship.

This
is the most unpleasant part of this parable.It is the description of the fate of those citizens (politai) who hate the king and who
declare that they will not have this man to reign over them (v. 14).The end for them when the king returns will
be a quick and certain death (v. 27).

So
will be the end for those who persist in their hatred and rejection of
Christ.Unlike the parable, however, it
will not be merely a physical death but the second death, a spiritual death.

The
Scottish preacher Robert Murray M’Cheyne said that when we preach on hell we
should only do so through tears.I think
Jesus told this parable with watery eyes.It is told not to revel in punishment but that it might be the means of
awakening the spiritually dead.

Consider
the words of the prophet Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 33:11 Say unto them, As
I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked;
but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil
ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

Fans of the iconic green (Greek) and red (Latin) covered bi-lingual volumes in the Loeb Classical Library from Harvard University Press will be interested to hear that there are plans to offer a digitized version of the complete collection by late 2014. There were stirs a few years ago when the modern editors began issuing new editions which removed "the last bastion of Anglo-American restraint" and offered literal renderings of the "blue" and risqué original content (see here and here; warning: mature content), as well as updating the epic King James-ian language of some editions.As one of the executive editors says in the video below, the digital edition represents another "technological upgrade" in the transmission of the texts (oral to written; scroll to codex; manuscript to printed page). Indeed, it is hard to prophesy what the brave new world of the digital revolution will mean for the preservation of printed texts (most importantly, for the transmission of the Bible; see my review of D. C. Parker's Textual Scholarship and the Making of the New Testamenthere [pp. 81-84]). Anyhow, the digital edition of the Loeb Classical Library will be quite a resource. I wonder what it will cost, given that the complete collection of the printed edition can now be had for $10,140 (and that at a 25% discount, according to the 2013 catalogue!).

Thursday, February 06, 2014

Note:Last
Sunday afternoon, I preached on Question # 65 in the Spurgeon Baptist Catechism
series, “Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?”Once again, I leaned heavily on the Puritan
Thomas Vincent’s exposition of the Westminster Shorter Catechism.The catechism clearly rejects any notion of “Christian
perfectionism,” all the while urging “evangelical” obedience to the
commandments of God.As Vincent puts it:“The saints on earth do keep the
commandments of God sincerely, but not perfectly.” The section below is drawn
from Vincent’s proof that no mere man [the Lord Jesus was no mere man] has been
ever been able to keep God’s commandments absolutely:

How do we prove that no saint ever attained
perfection in this life?

1.Because
the best of saints, in this life, are renewed but in part, and have remainders
of flesh and corruption, which do rebel and war against the Spirit and renewed
part in them.Consider:

Galatians 5:17 For the flesh
lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are
contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

2.Because
the Scriptures tell us expressly that none are without sin; and that such are
deceivers of themselves, and make God a liar, that affirms the contrary.Consider:

Ecclesiastes 7:20 For there
is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.

James 3:2 For in many things we offend all. If
any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able
also to bridle the whole body.

1 John 1:8 If we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him
a liar, and his word is not in us.

The
point here is that the Bible does not teach what is called “perfectionism.”

3.Because
the Scriptures hath recorded the sins of the most holy persons that have ever
lived.

Noah
became drunk.

Abraham
and Isaac dissimulated by saying that their wives were their sisters.

Lot
committed incest.

Jacob
deceived his father to take the blessing from his brother Esau.

Joseph
swore by the life of Pharaoh (Gen 42:15).

Moses
spoke unadvisedly (Psalm 106:33).

David
committed adultery and murder.

Job
and Jeremiah were impatient.

Peter
three times denied and cursed Jesus.

Paul
and Barnabas quarreled (Acts 15).

Vincent
concludes:“And if such persons as
these, who were filled with the Holy Ghost, and had as great a measure of grace
as any whom we read of, either in the Scriptures, or any history, were not
perfect, without sin, we may safely conclude that no saints, in this life, have
ever attained unto absolute perfection.”

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

In the review article I did on the Go Stand Speak video and the street preaching movement in the last RBT, I made reference to one of the
featured speakers in the video and controversy over The Church at Wells, Texas.Texas
Monthly magazine did an extended feature article in its February 2014 issue
on this church, asking “When is a church a cult?”A message board has also been set up with
various locals, family members, and others weighing in (sometimes unhelpfully)
on the situation.

It is a fascinating religio-sociological study.

The members of the Church of Wells are generally well
educated young adults (the core leaders met at Baylor University) who come from
middle class to upper middle class backgrounds, and who mostly grew up in
mainstream evangelical churches.This reminded
me of Rodney Stark’s study of early Christianity in The Rise of Early Christianity and his observation that most new
religious movements do not begin among the poor and under-educated but among
the more privileged and well-educated.

The leaders became heavily involved in the street preaching movement
and their theology has been influenced by soteriological Calvinism and their
reading of Spurgeon and the Puritans, as well as revivalistic preachers like
Leonard Ravenhill and Rolphe Barnard.Where
the group appears to have run into trouble is with its communal living and communal
ownership of businesses, intense conflict with family and friends of members, isolation,
and confrontations with local residents in the community.

Theologically, the
church’s practices appear to raise questions in the following areas:

·It
seems to stress the requirement of some kind of heightened spiritual experience
to prove that one has been converted (salvation is not something given until
diligently sought).R. Scott Clark would
call this QIRE (the quest for an illegitimate religious experience).I have heard Paul Washer, who has had a
significant influence on these young folk and others like them, for example,
stress this sort of thing.

·Related
to its views on regeneration, it seems the church does not hold to the
classical Reformed understanding of the perseverance of the saints.Part of this comes as a reaction against
easy-believism evangelism, false assurance, and “carnal Christianity,” typical of
the mainstream evangelicalism in which they were raised and now vehemently
attacked by the street preacher movement (e.g., the sermons of Paul Washer) by which
they have been influenced.

·Also
related to the above, the church seems to stress a distinct view of
sanctification that may tend toward perfectionism.It has, at the least, led toward a self-righteous
and judgmental demeanor.

·It also seems to hold to a non-cessationist
viewpoint with regard to spiritual gifts.Members prayed for a newborn child who died to be “resurrected” (this is
the term I’ve seen in the discussion; by this I’m sure they mean “resuscitated”)
rather than seeking immediate medical help.Other anecdotal accounts include references to claiming direct divine
communication via internal premonitions and “signs.”

·The
church’s worship meetings are apparently closed to members (and their children)
only.How does this fit with 1
Corinthians 14:23-25 where the “unlearned” and “unbelievers” were included in
the church’s meetings?

·The
rightful stress on obedience to Christ over obedience to all other human
relationships, including that of families, must be weighed against the equally
strong scriptural stream that stresses honor for parents and care for family
members (cf. Matt 10:34-39; Exod 20:12; 1 Tim 5:8).This weighing appears largely to be lacking.

·The
“elders” are three very young (though obviously very earnest and intelligent) men,
all under age 30.One wag labeled it “the
church of the hot boys.”It seems like
things have spun out of control in their efforts to create an ideal Christian
community.

·It
seems that all opposition has been interpreted as persecution.I also find this to be typical of the street
preaching mentality.I recently read one
“in your face” street preaching advocate refer to it as “riot evangelism.”Whatever happened, however, to Paul’s
admonition to believers to aspire to live quiet and uncontroversial lives (1
Thess 4:11)?

I know these are sensitive issues, and I am not crazy about
discussing a local church’s internal life, but the issues surrounding this
church have now become public.The charge
of being a cult is, granted, hard to nail down and, if inaccurate, harmful and
wrong.I once had a man accuse my
Reformed views on church eldership, the preservation of Scripture, and the abiding
validity of the fourth commandment as being “cultic.”Like most pastors, in the course of my
ministry, I have sometimes been accused of being overbearing and controlling when
I have had to confront or address difficult issues.I am sure many would see any conservative church
as being a cult.Where, however, is the
line between being a faithful and disciplined church and being a “cult”?

There are some things that conservative, Reformed churches
can learn from Wells.One, I think, is
the value of holding a historic, Reformed confession, as a safeguard against
novel beliefs and practices.Another is
the danger of “revivalistic” and experience-driven religion, as opposed to
simple reliance on the ordinary means of grace.A third is the importance of ecclesiological accountability.How might much of this have been addressed if
this church were connected to others that might have privately called a council
to examine and confront errors and ill behavior on many sides?